LEADERS, RIDER ADVOCATES WORK FOR TRANSIT FUNDS.

Byline: HARRISON SHEPPARD

Sacramento Bureau

SACRAMENTO -- Los Angeles officials and transit advocates fought Wednesday to restore more than $1 billion in cuts to public transportation in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed budget for 2007-08.

The governor, they said, is shortchanging public transit at a time when it is desperately needed in California amid rising gas prices and growing environmental concerns.

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, for example, is considering fare hikes next year in part because it would lose at least $260 million in state funding under the governor's plan.

"Under the proposed state budget, Los Angeles County's public transit system would be severely and negatively impacted," MTA spokesman Matthew Raymond told legislators.

Raymond added that the MTA is looking at an operating deficit of $108 million this year, and a total of $1.8 billion over the next 10 years.

The Legislature held its first budget subcommittee hearing on the public transit budget Wednesday. More than a dozen advocates of public transit and representatives of local agencies such as the MTA urged the committee to restore funding that Schwarzenegger has proposed cutting.

While the committee did not take any votes, several members said they were concerned about the cuts and would consider restoring at least some of the money.

In his 2007-08 budget plan, Schwarzenegger has proposed redirecting to other state programs about $1.1 billion in funds that would normally be slated for public transit. Those include $627 million redirected to school busing; $340 million for debt service on earlier transportation bonds; and $144 million for a program to transport recipients of social service programs.

Those programs, while transportation-related, were previously funded from other state agencies' budgets, such as schools and health services, not from transportation.

Much of the revenue that is being redirected is coming from excess gasoline tax revenues, known in budget parlance as "spillover," that are a result of higher gas prices.

Schwarzenegger made a similar proposal last year to shift the spillover, but the Legislature restored the money to transit.

Schwarzenegger's Department of Finance argues that the spillover fluctuates wildly every year, based on gas prices, and should not be counted upon as a stable source of transit funding. The administration is looking to make the shift of spillover permanent. Also, finance officials say, the amount of spillover was over-estimated last year, and this year's figure reflects a compensation for overspending.

Finance spokesman H.D. Palmer noted that the governor is increasing the budget for transit capital projects -- even though he is decreasing funds for the operating budgets of local transit agencies.

Schwarzenegger also helped pass Proposition 1B last year, which in coming years will provide more than $4 billion in bond financing for public transportation projects.

"The governor spearheaded Proposition 1B, which provides a significant amount of additional dollars for transit," Palmer said in a telephone interview. "The fact is, under this governor's budget, transit projects in California will have a stable and growing source of revenue."

harrison.sheppard(at)dailynews.com

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